Unpacking

Once Alice’s things had been moved up to the room, Eddie left them and drove himself across campus to his dorm. Alice and Tessa sat on their empty beds, facing each other. The whitewashed walls and plain furniture waited patiently for their trimmings, hiding away in the two sets of suitcases, book crates, and miscellaneous baggage of the two girls.

“Well,” said Tessa.

“Well,” said Alice. They smiled at each other. Alice bounced on the bed. “I am so excited about this semester!”

“I am as well; I’m taking some interesting classes. I’m glad to be able to start taking electives. Hopefully my grades will improve, now that I don’t have to worry about things like biology.”

“Like you have to worry about grades,” Alice scoffed. “But yes, I’m looking forward to photography; it should be a lot of fun.”

“It should. And I’m looking forward to Greek.”

Alice shook her head. “Geek!”

“No, Greek.”

“Yes, I know; Greek Geek!”

Tessa laughed. “I suppose so. Well, you’re no better with your art history. Honestly. Bits of clay that’s thousands of years old? And who cares who painted whom in the middle of the eighteenth century? That was over three hundred years ago!”

“Oh, come on,” Alice grinned. “Well. Yeah. We really should start to unpack …” She eyed the piles of luggage with distrust.

“We should. Good idea.” Tessa stood up, Alice bounced up, and together they spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and setting their room in order, to the bubbly sounds of music. Throughout the short hours, many dorm mates passed by the open door to exchange greetings and news and giggles. When it came time for dinner, the girls left the door and headed out to the cafeteria. There they met Eddie, as well as many other friends from last year, and the greetings went round again. That evening, they all sat out on the quad. Eddie brought his guitar, and someone else his fiddle, and everyone sang and talked into the small hours of the morning.